New U2 album by end of year likely

The new album has been confirmed to Dublin’s Hot Press magazine by U2 manager Paul McGuinness after the band’s successful comeback in Turin, Italy.

"I hope there will be another record pretty soon," McGuinness told journalist Olaf Tyaransen.

"If I was being wildly optimistic, I'd say before the end of the year," he laughed.

An album under the working title of ‘Songs Of Ascent’ has been in the works for some time but work stopped with Bono’s injury.

Now, however, with the band due to break off the current tour in October they may finish the work-in-progress.

"There’s a mixture of material available now," Paul McGuinness revealed. "Some of it’s been recorded. Some of it is called Songs Of Ascent, then there’s Spiderman material, then there’s some new stuff. I mean, Bono’s always a bit over-optimistic on these occasions, but I heard him telling an Italian journalist that he had four albums ready. That’s not quite it! But that’s what he was saying."

Much of the work has already been done it appears.

"There was a lot of very strong material already in the can earlier this year," Hot Press editor Niall Stokes confirmed. "They debuted 'Glastonbury' last night in Turin, which is a really beautiful song, and a potential single. And also 'North Star', which was performed acoustically – it is a classic U2 idea, which has fantastic resonance. And there is a lot more brilliant stuff where they came from."

Bono came through his return gig in great fettle.

"The show went extremely well," Paul McGuinness said "It was really superb. No weakness, no mishaps physically. And I thought he sang particularly well. The production performed perfectly. It was kind of a perfect night, really."